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Cancer is, by and large, a
man-made disease, the result of veering too far away from the
healthy lifestyles of our ancient ancestors. Avoiding health-sustaining
diets and activities, while embracing a highly unnatural lifestyle and
continually dousing your insides and outsides with excess chemicals is
what causes many cancers to develop, which is why what you eat is so
important to avoiding this top killer.

Just as it's widely known that certain foods -- such as fructose
and processed
meats -- contribute to cancer, other foods can help prevent
it and still others may actually kill cancerous cells, including
those that are resistant to drug treatment.

The Problem with Multi-Drug Resistant Cancer

You've probably heard about the problems with drug-resistant
bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
MRSA is much more dangerous than ordinary Staphylococcus aureus because
it has become resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used
to treat it, such as methicillin, oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin.

Just as bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, cancer can become
resistant to the drugs used to treat it, namely chemotherapy drugs. As
stated in the journal
Nature Biotechnology:

"Multidrug resistance, the principal mechanism by which many
cancers develop resistance to chemotherapy drugs, is a major factor in
the failure of many forms of chemotherapy. It affects patients with a
variety of blood cancers and solid tumors, including breast, ovarian,
lung, and lower gastrointestinal tract cancers.

Tumors usually consist of mixed populations of malignant cells,
some of which are drug-sensitive while others are drug-resistant.
Chemotherapy kills drug-sensitive cells, but leaves behind a higher
proportion of drug-resistant cells. As the tumor begins to grow again,
chemotherapy may fail because the remaining tumor cells are now
resistant."

Using chemotherapy to target all cancers is somewhat of a shot in the
dark, and is rarely the best option for cancer treatment anyway, as it
usually typically doesn't cure cancer or extend life -- and it rarely
improves quality of life. But adding to its downfalls is the fact that
many cancers are now developing resistance to it, which makes its
usefulness even more questionable.

What chemo does do, however, is expose your body to toxins that kill all
cells that multiply and divide rapidly. This includes not only cancer
cells, but also other rapidly multiplying and dividing cells, such as
bone marrow, reproductive system cells and hair follicles.

These are powerful drugs that present an assault on your system -- one
that your body must then overcome along with the cancer. An alternative
form of treatment (or at the very least a complementary one) that is
showing great promise is the potential to use food as your
"drug" to naturally ward off and even treat diseases like
cancer.

Can Food be Your Medicine?

GreenMedInfo
has compiled research on 66 natural substances in food that have
shown promise in treating multi-drug resistant cancer. These foods may
not work for ALL cancers, so you have to be careful and also work with a
knowledgeable health care practitioner who is experienced in treating
cancer. Unfortunately, many are still in denial about the power each
individual wields over their own health, and that preventing disease and
even treating disease can be as simple as modifying your diet and
lifestyle -- essentially, altering the environment of your body, to
provide the best, most health-promoting growth medium possible for all
your cells.

Part of the explanation for why food can have such a powerful influence
on serious diseases such as cancer is due to its influence on a
biological process called angiogenesis -- the process your body uses to
build blood vessels. Cancerous cells, like all other cells in your body,
cannot thrive without the oxygen and nutrients supplied by your
capillaries.

Most of us actually carry around microscopic cancer cell clusters in our
bodies all the time. The reason why we all don't develop cancer is
because as long as your body has the ability to balance angiogenesis
properly, it will prevent blood vessels from forming to feed these
microscopic tumors. Trouble will only arise if, and when, the cancer
cells manage to get their own blood supply, at which point they can
transform from harmless to deadly.

As our ancestors intuitively understood, nature has laced a large number
of foods and herbs with naturally occurring inhibitors of angiogenesis,
rendering them natural "anti-cancer medicines." Simply by
consuming these anti-angiogenetic foods you can naturally boost your
body's defense system and prevent blood vessels from forming and feeding
the microscopic tumors that exist in your body at any given time.

Food can also be used therapeutically to target and treat specific
cancers, such as the work
of Dr. Nick Gonzalez, who uses three protocols -- diet, supplements
and enzymes, and detoxification -- to treat cancer.

Much of curcumin's power seems to lie in its ability to modulate genetic
activity and expression -- both by destroying cancer cells, and by
promoting healthy cell function. It also promotes anti-angiogenesis, as
discussed above. Researchers have also found that curcumin can affect
more than 100 different pathways once it gets into the cell. More
specifically, curcumin has been found to:

Inhibit the
proliferation of tumor cells

Decrease inflammation

Inhibit the
transformation of cells from normal to tumor

Inhibit the synthesis
of a protein thought to be instrumental in tumor formation

CAUTION

An important point and one you need to understand. Just because an herb
is natural does not mean it will help. Some herbs and natural approaches
can actually worsen cancer so you have to be very careful.

Fortunately, curcumin is one of the only ones that appears to be
universally useful. But if you want to use another herb you are strongly
cautioned to seek an expert in these therapies. I have interviewed Donnie
Yance, Dr.
LaValley, Dr.
Gonzalez, and Dr.
Burzynski. These are examples of experts who could help walk you
through the process of understanding which natural agents would be best
for you.

What Other Foods Show Cancer-Fighting Potential?

Also high on GreenMedInfo's list of natural substances that may help
fight mutli-drug resistant cancer were:

Carotenoids

Carotenoids are the compounds in your foods that give them that
vibrant cornucopia of color, from green vegetables to red beets, to
the spectacular yellows and oranges of your bell peppers.

There are more than 700 naturally occurring carotenoids, but most
people are familiar with only a few.

Many carotenoids are easily obtainable through a healthy diet rich in
fresh organic produce, however one exception is astaxanthin,
a little-known carotenoid believed to be the most potent antioxidant
nature has to offer. Astaxanthin is difficult to get from dietary
sources alone, but is worth
learning more about due to its beneficial effects on human health.

Lycopene,
another antioxidant carotenoid, gives tomatoes their red color, and
works by fighting damaging free radicals in your body. It has also
shown cancer-fighting potential, particularly for prostate cancer.

Sulforaphane and Indole-3-Carbinol

A compound found in broccoli and other cruciferous veggies, sulforaphane
selectively targets cancer stem cells, and by doing so, it effectively
prevents the cancer from spreading and/or recurring. This is something
current chemotherapies cannot do, but food can!

Another component of broccoli and cruciferous veggies,
indole-3-carbinol, halts
the cell cycle in breast cancer cells without actually killing the
cells. The cell cycle is a rigidly prescribed series of steps a cell
must go through before it can divide in two, involving the duplication
of the cell's contents and a final split.

If you can alter specific components of the cell cycle, you can stop
the growth of cancer cells without killing normal cells.
Indole-3-carbinol interferes with the cell cycle in a way that turns
off a gene for an enzyme important in the cell's growth cycle.

Flavonoids

Flavonoids are natural chemicals found in plants, fruits and
vegetables. They're actually the largest group of several thousand
compounds belonging to the antioxidant-rich polyphenol family.

Flavonoids are further broken down into subclasses that you have
likely heard of such as anthocyanins, flavonols, flavones, flavanones
and flavanols. These terms, along with flavonoid and polyphenols (also
called phytochemicals), are often used interchangeably in the
literature, but they're broken into these different groups because
they have varying chemical structures.

While all flavonoids are antioxidants, some have stronger antioxidant
properties than others, depending on their chemical structure.
Flavonoids are present in most all vegetables, including onions,
broccoli and greens, as well as fruits such as apples, grapes and
berries.

The Future of Cancer Treatment: Targeting Your Individual Genome

If you're looking for a diet that can help you lower your chances of
developing cancer, follow the steps in my
nutrition plan and work your way up to the
advanced level. This is an excellent strategy for cancer prevention
as well as reaching high levels of health in all areas.

However, for cancer treatment you may be better served by
following a diet that is customized for your genome. This is the future
of cancer treatment, and you can learn more about it in my recent
interview with Dr.
Stanislaw Burzynski and his son, Dr. Gregory Burzynski. They employ
novel gene-target therapies in the treatment of cancer, which includes
studying the patient's entire cancerous genome, analyzing some 24,000
genes in each cancer patient, in order to identify the abnormal genes.

Once identified, medications and complementary strategies such as diet
and supplements are selected to treat these corrupted genes.

This can be important, as some supplements and foods -- although
generally accepted as beneficial -- can make some cancers worse. But
with gene-targeted therapy, genetic analysis is used to customize every
aspect of the treatment. This customization also includes your diet,
because as Dr. Burzynski says, "Diet is after all a combination of
chemicals," meaning nutrients. For more information, please listen
to the interview in its entirety, and also see my list of top
strategies for cancer prevention to round out your knowledge.